The farm bill, miracle fruit, civil disobedience, fair trade coffee, and soup: What do these things have in common?

They're fodder for Re-Thinking Soup, the free weekly lunch and conversation at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum on the UIC Campus.

The program launched in 2008, spearheaded in part by Tara Lane, once the pastry chef of Blackbird, now the kitchen manager of Hull House. Lane and Hull House chef Johnny Clark use historic recipes to make preserves out of produce from local growers and the museum's heirloom farm. And each Tuesday, they make soup.

The 2012 programming launched last week with Darra Goldstein, editor in chief of the food and culture journal Gastronomica. Goldstein spoke about cultural activism in the food world; then attendees ate vegetarian lentil soup and bread from Nicole's while continuing the conversation.

Go tomorrow to learn about miracle berries, do taste and scent experiments with Hull House director Lisa Lee, and, of course, eat a bowl of soup.

Upcoming speakers include a UIC assistant professor of anthropology discussing fair trade coffee, an artist and onetime member of the Fluxus group, and a manager of Fresh Moves, a local initiative that brings produce to Chicago's food deserts.

We guarantee it will be the best lunch conversation you'll have all week.

Re-Thinking Soup at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S. Halsted St.; 312-413-5353 or uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house